The Best Probiotics for the Health of Plants

There are always new developments made in the field of research carried out on the positive effects of bacteria. The HMP or Human Microbiome Project launched in the year 2008 has been doing good job in this field. At present, there are studies being carried out on the microbiomes of various other organisms. The plant microbiome in this category is getting huge attention. There have been major studies conducted on the use of probiotics and their effects on animals and human beings. There are recent studies being carried out on the use and the positive effects of probiotics on plants. One company that is working hard in reshaping agriculture with the use of effective probiotics is Indigo. This is a startup company in Cambridge.

Seed Coating and Probiotics

Farmers in the United States need to face different challenges on a regular basis. However, they are completely aware of the procedures that they can use for feeding the ever-expanding population and meeting the rising demands for food while protecting the environment and the health of people. Indigo has come forward with the fact that farmers in the United States are able to meet agricultural demands with the use of probiotics. The company has spent a couple of years in sequencing 40, 000 plant microbes and in evaluating the way they can bring their study back to the farmers. The idea of the company is quite simple. Indigo identifies the advantageous microbes in all the plants and then costs them back onto the seeds prior to planting them.

Microbe Coated Plants are the Best Plants

One thing that sets Indigo apart from the other companies focusing on microbes that live in the soil is that they have a close look on the different plants in order to figure out the microbes that are beneficial for the plants. Soil contains microbes in large quantities making it very difficult to say which microbes will be interacting with plants. However, according to Indigo, plants already make their selections because they grow in soil and therefore they are able to naturally select microbes. Now, the farmers need to have a close look and select the microbes that will actually work for the plants and coat the seeds with those microbes. The plants that are coated in microbes are more resilient and they are able to grow without the use of excessive chemicals. Such plants are also able to grow without the use of much water.

Indigo has plans of selling its probiotic coating to farmers who are into coating seeds with fungicides and insecticides. The company is planning to launch its very first product this year for the farmers growing predominate crops such as cotton, wheat, corn and soy. It might take time to come up with healthier options of agriculture but Indigo wants every individual to realize the fact that at some point in the near future, there will be farming practices that will nourish and not decimate.